Apparatus for cleansing, sterilizing, and drying milk-can covers.



0. H. HOOD. APPARATUS FOR CLEANSING, STERILIZING, AND DRYING MILK CAN COVERS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 25.

Patented Sept. 14, 1909.

5'11 vcwfoa: WHHIOCZ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES H. HOOD, OF OMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

AIPARATUS FOR CLEANSING, S TERILIZING, AND DRYING MILK-CAN COVERS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 14, 1909.

Original application .filed October 24, 1906, Seria1 No. 340,336. Divided and this application filed September 7 To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, CHARLES H. Hoop, a

citizen of,the United btates, residing at somerville, in the county of Middlescx and .State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Apparatus for Cleansing,

sterilizing, and Drying Milk-Can Covers,.

of which the following description, in connection with the'accompanying drawings, is

' ticularly to means permitting thecovers of the kinds of milk cans set forth in the I prevlous case, to be'treated 1n substantlally the same way as the cans proper.

Asstated 1n the above mentioned case, my inventlon depends upon the discovery that.

by using air and water in extremely large volume, in the manner therein'set forth at length, the washing and drying of milk cans is simplified in an m'rexpected degree.

Preferably the covers'are subjected to the various operations at different points, being placed on tracks to be pushed over rinsing,

washing, cleansing, sterilizing and drying means in the order explained in my Patents Nos. 864,131 and 864,132.

The cover apparatus is primarily intended to be used in connection with the canwz'ishing apparatus, although not restricted thereto. I

The constructional details and advantages of my mechanism will be pointed out in the course of the following description.

In the drawings I have showna preferred embodiment of the apparatus, Figure 1 showing the same in longitudinal section; and Fig. 2 in transverse section.

It will be understood that my invention is not limited to transmitting a single row or series of covers, being shown so. arranged tudinally extending tracks 4,4 shown as madeof stiff bar iron, seed ig. 2, spaced apart sufficiently to permit the projecting horizontal Serial No. 394,551..

rim of the covers to rest thereon while the depending flange slides between the tracks. The covers of the large kind of cans being consiiha'cd, are heavy, and the overhanging top portions thereof are usually made double, so that the covers get battered and more or less out ofshape, and I have found itdiliicult the preceding cover helps still further to hold them in. place.- To accomplisl'i this arrangement of the covers automatically I provide an inclined part 49 at the beginning of the track, connected by a with the remaining straight portion of the track, so that thereby a following-cover is caused to climb upwardly onto a preceding cover, and then, when it reaches the jog 50, the following cover it drops down is directed into proper overlapped position during the re-- maindcr of its passage. The treatment of the covers is substantially the same as explained and claimed in my before mentioned patents. A drip tank 14, pump 17, and

heater 19 are provided the same'as before,'

the drip tank" receiving fluid from a catch basin 12 and pipe 13 and being connected by a pipe 20 with a heater which connects by a pipe 18, to the pump, the latter delivering the heated cleansing fluid by a pipe 16 to the pipe 15, whence it forced to the discharge nozzle 45 which discharges the hot cleansing fluid directly'against the can covers as they pass one after theother above said nozzle. A second nozzle 46, provided with a spraying device, delivers rinsing wa ter from the city supply .or other convenient source, to cleanse and rinse the covers while a. sterilizing nozzle 47 delivers preferably a spray of steam or boiling water in sutlicient volume and at high pressure for sterilizing purposes, so that when the covers are subsequently dried by a huge volume of air from the drying pipes and nozzles 48 the covers are thoroughly sterilized. Exhaust appa ratusolis provided substantially the same ing tluid, cleansing water, and air.

as already explained in my preceding patents. I

in praetiee the covers, notwithstanding 'their eunibersoine, awkward and frequently battered shape, are placed in the passageway i on the incline -19 and pushed along one after the. other, the result being that they lap over each other as shown clearly in the drawings, because of the jog 5t) and the incline 4t), and then pass along the track .tank with sii'l'li 'ieiit force to keep the soda,

soap or the like stirred up and in proper solntion.

The apparatus is so constructed that it needs practically no attention, as it keeps itself clean, the constant down-flow of water down the walls and along the passageway keeping the apparatus continually washed, the washing fluid being renewed properly as the apparatus continues in use, in the manner already explained and covered by ny previous patents.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire'to secure by Letters atent is, i u 1. In an apparatus of the kind described, a. cover-receiving passage 'ay, provided. with guiding means for facilitating the passage of the covers, including means for directing the covers into successively overlapped arrangement, said facilitating guiding means being arranged to eoiipemte in maintaining said covers in said overlapped position as they pass through the passageway.

2. In an apparatus of the kind described, a cover-receiving passageway, provided with cover-receiving means, including mechanism 3. In an apparatus of the kind described,.

means for receiving the individual-covers at the ingoing end of the apparatus, means for maintaining the contiguous covers in undisturbed position with relation to each other as they pass along through the apparatus, and cleansing and sterilizing means to cleanse and sterilize the covers as they pass alon 4t. In an apparatus of the kind described, a cover-receiving passageway provided with a longitudinal track having at its front end an approximately vertical jog extending upwardly therefrom and a short portion inclining downwardly from said jog, for cooper ating with the covers, as they are shoved along, overlapping succeeding covers on preceding covers;

In testimony whereof, I. have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES II. HOOD. Witnesses \ViLnUn S. CLARKE, E, L. SMITH. 

